Archive for November, 2011|Monthly archive page

Google has just released GMail with a more ‘modern’ look and simultaneously released their iPhone GMail app but had to take the latter down due to some serious bugs. I’m looking forward to it anyway once they’ve ironed out the kinks.

With the new GMail also comes the official user information campaign that google buzz that fizzled early on (DOA really) is being shut down.

Sayonara Buzz!

well only my teenage nieces and 8 year old nephew will probably miss buzz as they’re the only ones who’ve sent me messages on that platform. I wonder if Google+ will follow suit a year or so from now. Probably not, as for myself havent been to G+ for weeks now. Somehow G+ is missing those magic ingredients called: excitement and relevant content (ie feed from friends ie users!). I wonder if the new GMail will somehow integrate with G+, I think that’s the only way to go.

The new GMail interface certainly looks very familiar, emails are now presented as conversations or wall comments that’s very similar to Facebook. However, unlike FB the underlying storage system still remains good old email. I think adopting this interface is a good move for Google and will allow them to slowly and easily introduce and mash in social apps and features a la FB.

As for Buzz, here’s the final message from Google:

last call to save your buzzes!

Bye Buzz! it was boring while it lasted. Buzz just happens to be one of those meatballs that failed to stick on the wall.

Google recently announced that their Maps API will not be free for everyone. In a nutshell, if one has an API that makes less then 25k map loads then its still free otherwise, you have 3 options: 1) scale down the usage (probably impossible if you’re business does mapping for a business), 2) enrol for automated billing in excess of the 25k which is $4 per 1k loads or purchase a Map’s Premier API at $10k a year (plus extra charges after a certain number of loads — couldn’t other info other than that). This means that companies like Apple will begin paying Google for their services (iPhone, iPods and iPads uses the Google Map API for the map app).

Any revenues from Apple will be short-lived though as Apple has been silently working on its own mapping service in the last couple of years and recently purchased C3 Technologies, a cutting-edge 3D mapping technology provider. Using multiple satellite images, C3 is able to render terrain and man-made structures into 3-dimensional objects. This is in contrast with existing methods where the use of CAD and 3D software is utilized to manually create the objects, a tedious process. The result? much more realistic buildings, smoother rendering and very pervasive 3D maps.

Judge for yourself:

So why invest in a mapping service? aside from navigation, Apple can begin selling advertising on their virtual 3D world (ala secondlife). Looking forward to iMaps in my iPhone in 2013 =)